NoNewTaleToTell: I'm still wondering why GTA decided to make a new universe for the HD games. I understand it's probably a bit about not having to worry about canon or continuity, but I'm not sure I really buy into that.
Most side characters in GTA games end up dead (or were heading down that path) anyway, so you might have five characters max that you need to reference per city. Saints Row manages to pull it off without any issue (even having missions based around characters from past games) and the second Getaway game managed to make reference (direct and indirect) to characters from the first without any problem.
It wouldn't require anything more than a passing mention really, just like saying "so and so rose up through the ranks of the city and got out while they could blah blah blah".
I guess the real reason is they wanted to redesign the cities without having any marionette strings, which I guess is fair enough, although I think it sucks a bit.
I'm looking forward to GTA V though it's likely going to be a long while until I can play it (it'll probably melt my current computer) unless I get a console just to play it, and I doubt it's worth that kind of expense.
Still hoping for GTA 6 to be in Vice City. Either set in the 1980s or now.